“At this point, [intellectual property] is such a large percentage of BlackBerbry’s value because their business is falling apart,” Marlett says. “There’s little value for the company’s actual hardware business, given its problems.”

“A Team Apple or Team Google, for example, would have the resources to buy these patents,” Marlett explains to CNN. “And then everyone wins if they can come to an agreement for a bunch of folks to license the patents.”